The day dawned with beautiful blue skies, valley temps in the 20s, and promised to be ideal spring skiing conditions, though summit temps were forecast to reach highs only in the 20s, not enough to soften up.
I skinned up the Jewell Trail from the Cog Railway's Marshfield base station at 9:15AM, as the first ski train chugged up the tracks. There was a well-packed snowshoe track up the hikingtrail, with lots of snow on the sides. A sun crust near the base station disappeared in the shaded forest, where snow depths are about 36"-40". It was dry powder all the way to ground, as there have not been any wet snow events, or freeze-thaw cycles since NH started receiving all this snow.
Upper elevations had heavy snow in the trees, and the 3'+ base put you in the tree branches. I gave up any thoughts of skiing back down the Jewell, which would have been possible at lower elevations, because the trail was so narrow from 4000' up. A couple snowshoers shared the trail with me. Above treeline, the Jewell Trail has no cairns, and the snowshoe track just followed an arbitrary route to the Gulfside Trail junction. I made switchbacks on the snowfields above treeline, which allowed skiing the entire ascent, instead of following the snowshoers across the rocks. I was surprised the wind had not scoured the upper slopes bare. There were pockets of powder even at the summit, though on top of hard windpack and sastrugi (sp?).
I reached the summit of Mt Clay at Noon. Temps were in the tens with 30 MPH NW winds blowing. I had to put on a face mask, in spite of the brilliant sunshine, as I felt frostbite was likely in the windchill. True to the snowrangers forecast, these winds were moving snow into the top of Pipeline Gully. Even on the Clay summit loop trail, there were slabs breaking off the harder base surfaces under my skis. Skiing the Great Gulf was out of the question due to the AV conditions.
I skied a few turns off the snowfields on the eastern lee slope of the south summit. From there I traversed across Clay Col to the Cog tracks, gingerly avoiding rocks in the thin cover. Once there, the first few hundred vertical feet were hard windpack surfaces, with a trace of powder pocketed here and there near the tracks. It was not great skiing until just above the Jacobs Ladder trestle. OMG, from there down it was untracked powder for the entire descent to the Waumbek Tank! There was a thin graham-cracker sun crust on the sunnier skiers right, but 12"-18" of dry powder in the shade of the tracks. What a run!
When I reached the Tank, the ski train was nearing the platform with another car full, but I had the slopes to myself. Avoiding the groomed as much as possible, dipping into the trees there was still lots of untracked to skiers left, in the shade. Nearing the base, the sun crust was too thick, and a finished carving GS turns down the groomed slope.
At the base, two cameramen and the marketing director greeted me and asked how was it. I told them the snow conditions were great! THey asked how many more runs I was going to do... Well, just one, I said, because I hiked up, LOL. I asked the Skip, the mkt dir, what the policy was about hiking up from the Tank. He said that if you are a customer of the Cog, then you are not supposed to leave the ski area boundary; meaning no hitching a ride to the Waumbek Tank and hiking up from there. I did not ask what the policy was, and he did not tell me, about hiking up another route and skiing down into the ski area boundary. Hopefully the don't-ask-don't-tell policy will hold. I met Wayne Presby, one of the Mt Washington Hotel Partners, and mastermind behind the expansion of skkiing at BW and the Cog, who skied down behind me. He had been on that last train car nearing the Waumbek Tank as I descended. I thanked him for all he had done here.
If you aren't up to "earning your turns" the old-fashioned way, I highly recommend a Cog ticket to access at least the terrain below the Waumbek Tank. There were plenty of tracks headed off OB into the woods to skiers left, and I suspect there may be some lines in there.
From the Jewell, it looked like Monroe Brook has filled in nicely, as well as Ammonoosuc Ravine. I couldn't see down Pipeline from above, but the top was heavily loaded with snow. I couldn't see down into Airplane, but the Great Gulf headwall was well-covered, maybe still too rocky to ski, but Airplane should be more loaded than the headwall. Once that consolidates and corns up, GG should be prime in a few weeks!
I skinned up the Jewell Trail from the Cog Railway's Marshfield base station at 9:15AM, as the first ski train chugged up the tracks. There was a well-packed snowshoe track up the hikingtrail, with lots of snow on the sides. A sun crust near the base station disappeared in the shaded forest, where snow depths are about 36"-40". It was dry powder all the way to ground, as there have not been any wet snow events, or freeze-thaw cycles since NH started receiving all this snow.
Upper elevations had heavy snow in the trees, and the 3'+ base put you in the tree branches. I gave up any thoughts of skiing back down the Jewell, which would have been possible at lower elevations, because the trail was so narrow from 4000' up. A couple snowshoers shared the trail with me. Above treeline, the Jewell Trail has no cairns, and the snowshoe track just followed an arbitrary route to the Gulfside Trail junction. I made switchbacks on the snowfields above treeline, which allowed skiing the entire ascent, instead of following the snowshoers across the rocks. I was surprised the wind had not scoured the upper slopes bare. There were pockets of powder even at the summit, though on top of hard windpack and sastrugi (sp?).
I reached the summit of Mt Clay at Noon. Temps were in the tens with 30 MPH NW winds blowing. I had to put on a face mask, in spite of the brilliant sunshine, as I felt frostbite was likely in the windchill. True to the snowrangers forecast, these winds were moving snow into the top of Pipeline Gully. Even on the Clay summit loop trail, there were slabs breaking off the harder base surfaces under my skis. Skiing the Great Gulf was out of the question due to the AV conditions.
I skied a few turns off the snowfields on the eastern lee slope of the south summit. From there I traversed across Clay Col to the Cog tracks, gingerly avoiding rocks in the thin cover. Once there, the first few hundred vertical feet were hard windpack surfaces, with a trace of powder pocketed here and there near the tracks. It was not great skiing until just above the Jacobs Ladder trestle. OMG, from there down it was untracked powder for the entire descent to the Waumbek Tank! There was a thin graham-cracker sun crust on the sunnier skiers right, but 12"-18" of dry powder in the shade of the tracks. What a run!
When I reached the Tank, the ski train was nearing the platform with another car full, but I had the slopes to myself. Avoiding the groomed as much as possible, dipping into the trees there was still lots of untracked to skiers left, in the shade. Nearing the base, the sun crust was too thick, and a finished carving GS turns down the groomed slope.
At the base, two cameramen and the marketing director greeted me and asked how was it. I told them the snow conditions were great! THey asked how many more runs I was going to do... Well, just one, I said, because I hiked up, LOL. I asked the Skip, the mkt dir, what the policy was about hiking up from the Tank. He said that if you are a customer of the Cog, then you are not supposed to leave the ski area boundary; meaning no hitching a ride to the Waumbek Tank and hiking up from there. I did not ask what the policy was, and he did not tell me, about hiking up another route and skiing down into the ski area boundary. Hopefully the don't-ask-don't-tell policy will hold. I met Wayne Presby, one of the Mt Washington Hotel Partners, and mastermind behind the expansion of skkiing at BW and the Cog, who skied down behind me. He had been on that last train car nearing the Waumbek Tank as I descended. I thanked him for all he had done here.
If you aren't up to "earning your turns" the old-fashioned way, I highly recommend a Cog ticket to access at least the terrain below the Waumbek Tank. There were plenty of tracks headed off OB into the woods to skiers left, and I suspect there may be some lines in there.
From the Jewell, it looked like Monroe Brook has filled in nicely, as well as Ammonoosuc Ravine. I couldn't see down Pipeline from above, but the top was heavily loaded with snow. I couldn't see down into Airplane, but the Great Gulf headwall was well-covered, maybe still too rocky to ski, but Airplane should be more loaded than the headwall. Once that consolidates and corns up, GG should be prime in a few weeks!